Evening star., 1944-03-19
By Leila Mechlin.

~ NS'" AVA CC"tt"s
Luigi Lucioni, a collection o.
whose original prints is being ex'
hibited this month in the Smith.
sonian Building, under the auspices
of the Division of Graphic Arts Of
the National Museum, is perhaps
better known as painter than as
an etcher. 1t was he who won, by
vote of the visiting public, the
Popular Prize" in the Corcoran
Gallery's 1889 Biennial Exhibition
This was for painting in oils OF
an athlete. In the Corcoran BIZ
ennial of 1941, he was represented
even better by portrait of young
John La Fargo, the grandson of
the great artist of the same name
Born in Italy in 1900, Mr. Lucioni
shows in his work the influence of
old-world training. He is an ex-
cellent craftsman and both in his
etchings and his paintings evi-
dences a certain reverent respect
for the art he practices. When he
paints he usually concerns himself
with people and portraiture. but his
etchings are, as a rule, of the out
door world, landscapes.
He divides his year between New
York and Vermont, the fields, for
ests and hills of the latter making
to him strong appeal.
1t Is these that one sees in his
etchings, now on view, and seeing
realizes their charm. Studying
these prints. rendered boldly but
with great fidelity of detail. the
observer becomes conscious of a
similarity between the landscape of
our Green Mountain State and that
OF certain sections of Italy-both
so open to the smiling skies, so
peaceful and picturesque. Mr.. Lu-
cioni's needle is less restrained than
his brush, his etched lines being
emphatic. whereas his brushwork
is essentially restrained. This is
unusual. The fiexibility of a me-
dium requiring such technical con-
troll as that of etching is, as in this
instance, a matter of endless amaze
ment to the connoisseur and COL
lector.
Exhibition of Wafer Coiors
BY Vernon Dncken
A memorable incident of the cur
rent art season in Washington was
an all too brief exhibition of water
colors by Vernon Duckett, held un-
der distinguished auspices on a
single afternoon, that of February
29, in the Statler Hotel.
The sponsors were Mrs. Dean
Acheson, Mrs. Breckenridge Long,
Nine. Carlos Martins, Mrs. Lau-
rance Rockefeller. Mrs. Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Mrs. Harlan Fiske
Stone, at least three of whom are
outstanding artists. The occasion
for the showing was the early de-
parture of the artist for Brazil on
an architectural mission assigned
to him by the co-ordinator of inter-
American affairs.
Mr.. Duckett has made an envi-
able reputation for himself as a
water colorist, but he is primarily
an architect of exceptional training
and experience. Of an old Mary
land family, he studied here at
Catholic University and at George
Washington University, later at the
Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts
in France. He has been uncom-
monty fortunate in the winning of
awards ranging from diplomas and
medals to scholarships and COM
missions, all of which have come
to him in the past 10 or II wears
since he began practicing his pro-
fession
~ The painting of water colors he
counts as pastime. to which, how
ever, he brings boundless enthu-
siasm and effort. the quality of
which does not differ greatly from
that which he gives to a less recoe-
nlzed art, that of ice skating.
~ The % water colors exhibited were
painted here in Washington. in
California, in and near New Orleans,
an the vicinity Of the Great Smoky
f, mountains on Nantucket and
abroad Rendered in broad fiat
washes they were decorative in
character and pleasing in effect
modern in the best sense of the
word but also in a measure tradi-
1ional-lndiyiduaistic but certainly
sane and sound.
1 Two outstanding examples were
lhe Letter House" on Dupont
Circle, bathed in summer sunshine
and shadowed in part by heavy
1oliaged trees; and a wide view
. OF the mountains on our West Coast
Drowned by the summer sun, sculp-
+, tured by the hand of God. slum-
. bering giants soon to awake. the
treatment of which was utterly
olVerse but equally skillful.
Mr.. Duckett is member of the
, Washington Water Color Club with
which he has frequently exhibited
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