Evening star., 1939-07-30

SHOULD not De 1OTgOCCen tnaC Wn1le
they were being produced some
great portraits were being painted
by those who, without tradition, but
with great gifts. were making an
honorable place for themselves and
the art Of their time in the annals
Of the world. 1t is an absurdity to
say, as is set down in the catalogue
OF this exhibition, that the popu-
lar art of these professional
artists because of fresh, honest VI
sion and unsophisticated technique
is often more exciting to the mod
ern eye than that of any but the
very best of their professional con-
temporaries." However, its inno-
cence was certainly genuine and
not assumed. This is one of the
oases in this exhibition to which
reference was previously made.
Notable Exception.
Another and more notable excep-
ton to the rule is a section given
over to the American painting of
the late 10th century, which COM
prises works by Ryder, Eakins,
Winslow Homer, La Fargo, Whistler,
Sargent and Mary Cassatt. From
the Phillips Gallery have come
Ryder's Dead Bird" and Eakins'
Portrait of Miss Van Buren," both
admirable works. little related, it
would seem. to the works produced
in Paris about the same time. From
the Philadelphia Museum there is
an exquisite Eakins, "Shad Fish
ing on the Delaware" which has
the quality of a Boudin; here also,
among the Homers, are Eight
Bells" from the Addison Gallery of
American Art at Andover, and
Right and Left" two wounded
ducks falling into the sea, lent by
Mrs. Randall Morgan. La Fargo is
represented by landscape, Para
disc Valley which the writer has
not seen since it was exhibited in
the Comparative Exhibition" in
New York about 30 years ago and
still finds enhancing. Sargent is at
his best in his psychological por-
trait of Mrs. Charles Clifford Dyer,
lent by the Art Institute of Chicago,
a little canvas, very subtle, and by
his portrait OF Robert Louis Steven
son striding across a room, the lat
ter owned by Mrs. Payne Whitney.
All these are more than worth the
price of admission, but to what do
they lead and wherein does one find
relationship? All these American
painters were followers of tradition,
great technicians, sane, thought
full painters, employing their art
consciously to a great end, giving
the world something wanted and
needed.
European Section.
Let us pass to the European Sec
ton. The introduction here is good.
On the wall opposite the entrance
to the series of galleries given over
to European painting of the late
10Th century, hung low on a white
background, adjacent to the glass
front and therefore flooded with
light, is the magnificent Renoir from
the Phillips Gallery, Luncheon of
the Boating Party" a masterpiece
which it would be hard to spoil.
There are other Renoirs, among
them charming portrait of little
girl, as well as some of his coarse
nudes done during his late, tragic
period. Then comes Cezanne with
his blundering technique, his striv-
ing for that which never to his own
satisfaction he attained, whose fail
ures have been mythically converted
into successes today, deceptive and
misleading. Then comes Gauguin,
with all his vagaries and vulgarities,
and poor tormented Van Gogh with
his efforts of escape, Seurat, Lautrec
and others, among them Rousseau,
whose Sleeping Gypsy" has weird
but monumental quality.
The worst, however is yet to come
in the art of the Goth century in
Europe and America. Here all the
lsms run frantic. Matisse, leader of
the Fauves wild beasts, is repre-
sented by The Dance" and by
Femme Corsage Vert" as well as
by mournful Girl in Yellow" and
still life studies verging on the alb
stract. There is an utterly unlovely
and unchaste nude by Modigliani,
as we'll as portrait of Blaise Gen.
drars which is an ill-painted carica-
ture; there are paintings of Chartres,
one by Utrillo from a postcard, the
other by Soutine after hours of
concentrated study" - the latter
about to fall down and technique
being sacrificed to emotional ex-
preston. Worst of all is a painting
by Roualt entitled Head of Christ. u
which resembles a horse or a dog as
much If not more than q human
being, and from which one must
turn in grief and horror.
Bellows Painting.
A grateful note of gayety is found
in the painting by Bellows, Forty
two Kids" lent by the Corcoran
Gallery of Art, but the group illus
trating the American scene, among
which this is classified, includes also
such paintings as Benton's hid
eous and ridiculous Homestead" q
farmer feeding his pigs, presented
to the Museum of Modern Art by
Marshall Field; Reginald Marsh S
High Yaller," and Grant Woods
discussed Daughters of the
American Revolution" for which he
Is not loved; to say nothing of
Cadmus' vulgar Greenwich Village
Cafeteria" and Drought Survivors, u
by Hoque, now owned by the Jeu
de Paume Museum in Paris. From
Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros, the
three leading painters of Mexico
have come characteristic works, the
most fantastic of which is by the
last, and entitled Echo of Stream
There are distractions by Picasso
and by Braque, which probably none
but themselves will understand, and
there is IAN ominous" lay figure by
De Chirico, Greek by birth, italian
by adoption, The Seer" which is
set down as sur-realistic. From such
works as these what does one take