Evening star., 1945-04-08
BvLeila MechHn

the recent announcement by Davlc
E. Finley, director of the Nationa
Gallery or Art, that, at the invita-
ton of the Tate Gallery, London
the trustees and director OF the
National Gallery will organize ar
exhibition of American paintings te
be held in the Tate Gallery as soon
after the European war ends as cir
cumstances permit. The collection
it is understood, will comprise about
$50 paintings and, as far as pos
sible, represent the art of our coun-
trv from the earliest time to the
present day. In the matter OF choice
Mr.. Finley and his trustees Will
have the assistance of eminent au-
thorities, directors of some OF our
leading art museums, and are al
ready assured of generous co-opera-
tion in the matter of loans. Even
so, this will not be an easy task
the field is Wide-there is divergence
in opinion concerning merit. Also
the question is asked, Has America
an INDIGENOUS art or does it, in this
DdTtlCuldI, lItlclS lSAiSSV 1AAN 90 ~
Europe?" Let us see.
Our early American art undoubt-
edly stems from Britain. The great
English school of portrait painting
reached its height in the latter hall
of the 18th century and 1t was
then that Benjamin West, Quaker,
of Philadelphia, after visiting Rome,
set up his studio in London, per-
fected his art, welcomed to his home
other American students, secured
wide patronage among the British
and. after declining title, was hon.
ored by the presidency of the Royal
Academy.
Among those who profited by the
opportunities that London afforded
were such outstanding American
artists as Gilbert Stuart, Charles
Wilson Peale, John Singleton Cop
ley, Thomas Sully, John Trumbull,
Chester Harding, S. F. B. Morse
Waldo and Neagle-not to name all
These. with the exception of West
and Copley, eventually returned to
America and became leaders in their
own turn.
In Our National Gallery
This early school, so we'll repre-
sented in our National Gallery, SET
standard and witnessed to the
independence of American ideals
while, at the same time, acknoWl-
edging foreign influence.
The British people are not ig-
norant of the work Of this early
American school, to which they eX-
tended such cordial hospitality, but
there is a long gap between West
and Stuart and their contempo-
raries and such famous American
painters of our own day as Sargent
and Whistler, both of whom spent
many years in London and are
we'll represented in the British Ma
tional Collection 1t is this gap
that the proposed exhibition at the
Tate Gallery will undoubtedly fill.
Twenty years ago paintings by
these men, on view in the National
Gallery, Trafalgar Square, were all
labeled British SchooT-a COM
plimerlt, to be sure-but a little
misleading. 1t was about this time
that when an American lady was
questioned by a Britisher concern
ing contemporary American por-
trait painters of merit and named
Sargent and Shannon, then the
best in England, she met with
sharp reprimand, her queStione1
exclaiming, Sargent and Shannon
indeed. Why you greedy Ameri-
cans will be claiming Whistler
next" And so we do still.
merican Art Pioneers
If this is put down as ignorance
let us not forget that large pro-
portion of our own people are little
more informed and with far less
reason. During the years between
let us say Stuart and Sargent, oul
American landscape school rose
from indigenous soil as did also oul
school of genre painting. Benton
Curry, the late Grant Wood anc
other American realists are sup
posed by many to have discovered
America, but such claimants over
look the pioneers, Moran, Bierstadt
Church, Richards, Audubon, to name
the most outstanding, who sought
subjects belonging especially te
America-the Grand Canyon, Nj
agara, bird life, and so on. Their!
was perhaps a mistaken idea, fol
art has no boundaries, and is. to q
great extent, a personal matter, but
the painters were sincere and es-
sentially nationalistic.
After them and those of the so.
called Hudson River School," who
perpetuated the beauty of nature
as they saw and reveled in it, came
1nness, inspired somewhat by the
landscape school of France, just
awakening, but destined himself tt
be a leader. For at least a quarter
Of century our American land.
scape painters occupied the center
OF interest in all exhibitions and the