Evening star., 1943-06-20
7 he Art Word
Walter King Stone Landscape
Paintings on View at Museum

Before then the Hudson River
school had made its contribution
seeking out romantic scenes as had
the foreign painters. under clas-
sical influence, and bending their
efforts to copy nature, not merely as
they saw it. but as they knew it to be.
Among the Leaders
The leaders of this school were
men who not only painted, but in
some instances engraved as we'll
and so reached wide and admir-
ing public. Among these were Du-
rand, Kensett, Casilear and Smile.
Then from France came the influ-
ence and example of the Barbizon
school-Corot and his contempo-
rarieS. InneSs. Homer Martin, Wy
ant and D. Y. Murphy, Tryon and
Ochtman, leaders of the school in
America, each made fine contribu-
ton. Birge Harrison in the nineties
and the first decade which followed
had a notable school of landscape
painting a Woodstock. N Y, as did
| Woodbury. at Ogunquit, Me. Next
came the impressionist school,
headed in this country by Chile Has
sam, and then the 'plein-air"
school. of which Redfield. Schofield
and Symons were chief exponents.
La Fargo and Thayer and j. Alden
Weir all painted landscapes of dis
tinction, albeit they were known as
/ figure painters. Works of great
beauty were also produced by Da-
Wis. Crane, Foster and Lathrop. to
name only few. These artists
were themselves greatly moved by
! the beauty of the outdoor world
and painted because of desire to
share their joy with others.
"Nof the Ashes"
Here in Washington We had. 40
years ago and less, a strong group
of landscape painters, Max Weyl,
Messer, Brooke, Moser, Holmes, Ber-
tina Perrie. the Nichols and others,
and the pictures they painted are
still giving quiet but keen pleasure
to their fortunate posSessors.
Today pictures of slums, gas tanks,
railroad yards and back alleys have
taken the place of pure landscape
These paintings of our own time
indicate, it is said, growth in So
cial consciousness. but they leave
depression rather than joy in their
wake. Perhaps the after-war reac-
ton will change the current OF the
! stream. What is lost, however, is
| seldom regained. But we must press
on, hoping for renewal of spirit,
though not duplication of fact
We still have among us, true to
/ the old tradition, such painters as
Hibbard, Nichols. Ryder. Stone and
others. 1t was the pursuit of beauty
which, with them and their pred
ecessors, brought forth landscape
paintings at its best, and so long
as men dream dreams and see
visions" this will go on. AS Birge
| Harrison once said. ANY art which
is to endure must be true to the
spirit of its own age" but we must
not forget the admonition of Jean
| Jaures. Take from the altar of the
| past the fire, but not the ashes"
1t is by the light of this fire that
we go forward.
Prints by W0men Artists
The Division of Graphic Arts of
the United States National Museum
is showing this month, in it's newly
constructed gallery in the Smith
sonian Building, very engaging
collection of prints by members of
the National Association of Women
Artists, Inc. Thirty-five prints in
various media are included in this
collection and from first to last an
exceptionally high average of merit
| Is maintained.
| Particularly good, from the tech
nical standpoint, are the Autographs
and the dry points. There is also